A break from the pregnancy whining
This may not be a popular opinion, but please hear me out in full before you jump down my throat. I honestly have the best intentions behind it.
I was thinking the other day of the great "gay marriage" debate and it occurred to me that perhaps the issue has a lot to do with semantics. Therefore, I put forth a possible solution that may make it more palatable. <lj-cut>
Whereas I may not personally, from a religious standpoint, agree with alternative lifestyles, it is not for me to stand in judgment of them. And what I realize is that when two people (whatever gender they may be) have made a lifelong monogamous commitment to one another, it seems to me that they should be afforded certain rights. What I see as a major issue in the debate is that two people of the same sex in this lifelong commitment to one another are not afforded the same rights that a heterosexual couple in a lifelong commitment are, i.e. insurance, property rights, medical choice rights, etc. I find it detestable that as a gay person's partner lay dying, they may have no right whatsoever to make life or death choices for that person, when they are the ones that would know more than anyone else what the other person's choices would be just as one example. There are, of course, many other very LEGAL issues that arise in these situations when gay partners cannot be legally joined.
Having said that, I have no issue with gay partners having legal rights. And I think a lot of other people would not have those issues either. However, I think the argument and the frustration and the indignation and the emotional vile comes from semantics, i.e. the use of the word "marriage" itself. It is a difficult thing for me as well, as I see marriage as a religious ceremony between man and woman (even though I do realize that it is a legal term for the joining of two people) and that makes it hard for me to be totally comfortable in using the word to describe the union of man and man or woman and woman. Before you fly off the handle, please finish hearing me out!
What I think is that a new word should be coined for the legal joining of gay partners. In this way, perhaps, there would be less resistance to a ceremony that unites life partners, yet they would still be afforded what they really want and need which is a recognized legal bond. It is a compromise, but perhaps it is a necessary one to get us past all the vitriol and get to what I believe is the bottom line - gay couples legal rights regarding one another, and gay couples being recognized as a legal partnership.
That is my solution. May the mudslinging begin. ;)
